458 SOCOM

A

acl864

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A gun buddy was horrified that I did not own an AR Platform rifle. So he gifted me an AR-15 Lower. I've gone through all of the calibers available and decided on the 458 SOCOM. Bear Creek Arsenal has some entry level upper complete with BCG for an attractive price. Anyone have any feedback or experience with their products?
 
I have many and love them.

Just recently took this critter with a 50 beowulf bear creek side charger.

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I'm sure there are others that will soon chime and with the " Bear Creek is junk", but they're not. I haven't had any issues with any of mine. And I have quite a few...
 
ImYourHuckleberry said:
I have many and love them.

Just recently took this critter with a 50 beowulf bear creek side charger.

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I'm sure there are others that will soon chime and with the " Bear Creek is junk", but they're not. I haven't had any issues with any of mine. And I have quite a few...
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I think you need to define what is the rifle’s purpose before you can say if the are a good fit. A 458 SOCOM that you will only shoot around 50-100 rounds a year and the occasional deer/hog hunt, sure BCA is probably good enough. For a heavy use duty rifle, that has several thousands of rounds fired through it a year, that will be a no, it’s not good enough.
 
Average Joe said:
I think you need to define what is the rifle’s purpose before you can say if the are a good fit. A 458 SOCOM that you will only shoot around 50-100 rounds a year and the occasional deer/hog hunt, sure BCA is probably good enough. For a heavy use duty rifle, that has several thousands of rounds fired through it a year, that will be a no, it’s not good enough.
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Fair point. 50 -100 rounds per year is realistic. It's not going to be my primary defense weapon but would certainly be an option if circumstances called for it. I am an experienced reloader and already load and cast .458 bullets for 45-70 so it will probably be primarily fired with reduced power loads for practice/plinking.
 
Ive had good luck with the .50 Beowulf (or rather "12.7x42mm") uppers and a barrel used to assemble my own upper.

Treat the complete upper as a parts kit until you go through and make sure its all right, and every one I've dealt with ( all normal charging handle types, with port doors) have needed the port door spring trimmed because it intruded into the ejection port. Handguards often needed to be secured. Etc.

The one barrel I used was attached to a modified A2 upper in a sort of dissapator config and has not given me a single problem, and all of the .50 barrels have been surprisingly accurate especially with good handloads.

Once "finished" they work fine. I'd also recommend grabbing some Alexander arms extractors if going for .50 Beo...
 
Average Joe said:
I think you need to define what is the rifle’s purpose before you can say if the are a good fit. A 458 SOCOM that you will only shoot around 50-100 rounds a year and the occasional deer/hog hunt, sure BCA is probably good enough. For a heavy use duty rifle, that has several thousands of rounds fired through it a year, that will be a no, it’s not good enough.
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Tell me exactly who would fire 1000s of rounds of 458 socom per year????
 
ImYourHuckleberry said:
Tell me exactly who would fire 1000s of rounds of 458 socom per year????
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I would think the groups who the .458 SOCOM was designed for and named after would fire thousands of rounds a year. But my comment about thousands of rounds a year was meant for 5.56, 300 blackout cartridges and BCA quality being good enough for a heavy use duty rifle. I should have been more specific.
 
Average Joe said:
I would think the groups who the .458 SOCOM was designed for and named after would fire thousands of rounds a year. But my comment about thousands of rounds a year was meant for 5.56, 300 blackout cartridges and BCA quality being good enough for a heavy use duty rifle. I should have been more specific.
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So by your own admission, your post is irrevellevent to the OP's post.

He stated it's his first AR and also included the caliber he was interested in. He also included the key words "entry level" and "attractive price".

I have duty service rifles and that is their purpose. That isn't what this post was about.
 
A friend of mine has a 458 SOCOM with a Tromix upper. He’s had a few issues with it but the support he’s gotten from the owner of Tromix has been very impressive. They’ve taken care of all issues without question and shared a lot of info on the “why” behind the issues, how to solve them in a pinch if needed, and provided spare parts in case small parts broke a second time.

That said, I would call this a novelty round.
 
ImYourHuckleberry said:
So by your own admission, your post is irrevellevent to the OP's post.

He stated it's his first AR and also included the caliber he was interested in. He also included the key words "entry level" and "attractive price".

I have duty service rifles and that is their purpose. That isn't what this post was about.
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I’m not trying to get into any argument over your love and happiness with BCA. I’m glad you are a satisfied customer. I wish them well. I have known the owners for many years. But you must have reasonable expectations with their products and quality control. They do not make a rifle that will hold up to heavy use in any caliber. But they do make a rifle that will hold up for many shooters. The OP did not state what his purpose or expectations of the rifle he had selected. It was my intention to point out that if it was for occasional light use then BCA is good enough. If he had expectations of moderate to heavy shooting their products are not what he’s looking for.
 
rdinatal said:
Bet Anderson is in the list, right? Right?!?
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Actually I do not have any real experience with Anderson. So I cannot and will not speak about their quality from a first hand experience like I can BCA.
 
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Jerzsubbie said:
That said, I would call this a novelty round.
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Can't really argue that point one way or another. But for my part it's accurate. I can't really justify the decision other than to say that if have the choice to go pew, pew, pew or KABOOM, KABOOM, KABOOM. I'll take the second option. This is a fun build. Not a duty or primary SD weapon.
 
acl864 said:
Can't really argue that point one way or another. But for my part it's accurate. I can't really justify the decision other than to say that if have the choice to go pew, pew, pew or KABOOM, KABOOM, KABOOM. I'll take the second option. This is a fun build. Not a duty or primary SD weapon.
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Look, I built a 10.5” 12.7x42 AR…so I find zero fault in your logic. 😎
 
458 Socom operates at far lower pressures than 223. There’s no reason an AR chambered in 458 couldn’t last a very long time, especially the barrel which should last nearly forever. Now in terms of BCA products, I own one of their 7.62x39 uppers and it is horribly undergassed…yeah I wrote undergassed. The barrel has almost no shoulder at the threads making it not useable for suppressor mounting. It’s a piss poor upper that I regret purchasing but cannot bring myself to dump on anyone else. If BCA makes reliable rifles, I haven’t experienced them.
 
BigWaylon said:
Look, I built a 10.5” 12.7x42 AR…so I find zero fault in your logic. 😎
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I want to make a 7.5in upper and put it on a lower with one of those super short buffer tube setups, and put on super low sights and shoot it like a demeted methed out broom handle.
 
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My .458 Socom life started with a complete BCA .458 Socom upper with a massive discount on the upper, the BCA upper was extremely accurate, like 1.5 MOA with my hand loads, but I could never get the upper to be reliable, I had major problems getting the upper to shoot more than 2-3 rounds in as row, the biggest issue was with a failure to go into battery, the rifle would cycle and pick up rounds out of the magazine just fine, but the BCG would not lock 80% of the time, I tried a Tromix extractor, polishing the chamber, polishing the bolt, polishing the feed ramps, polishing the bolt, new springs etc, and I tried literally every single "fix" that was suggested by folks on the web, NOTHING worked for me.

With all that said, the BCA .458 Socom barrel & bolt was VERY accurate, with my 325 Grain FTX hand loads I was getting 1 MOA accuracy and I took the rifle out to 450 yards with a 1-4 PA scope, if I could have gotten the dame thing to cycle and go into battery properly I would have been as happy camper, but sadly my issues never did get fully resolved so I ended up buying a Tromix .458 Socom barrel & bolt, the first 150 rounds through the Tromix parts restored my faith in the caliber, I had exactly 2 failures in 5 magazines, but those stoppages were probably due to my hand loads more than anything else.

I have a buddy who picked up a .450 Bushmaster upper and he had extremely good results with the upper, so much so that hes since picked up a BCA in .223, 6.5 Grendel and a 300Blk, they all have sot perfectly fine, his new BCA .458 Socom upper, not so much, he is having the exact same issues I was having, he plans on "tinkering" with the upper to see if he can get it running properly, and he is fully aware of my issues with the .458 upper I have, he may figure it out, but I am of the opinon that you would be better off spending a few more bucks to get a "proper" barrel & bolt, take that for what its worth, I am no expert but I'm not exactly a newb on the AR platform and I never got mine working properly.
 
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I appreciate all of the feedback.
I'm rethinking my caliber choice at this time. My decision to go with 458 SOCOM was basically because I liked the fact that I could use the 45-70 jacketed bullets I have on the shelf as well as the 390gr. FNHP bullets I cast myself, it was a thumper and saying 458 SOCOM sounded cool as f*&k. I'm going to take a step back and look at 450 Bushmaster and 50 Beowulf as well. I also cast and load for 45 ACP and 45 Long Colt so .452 bullets are on the shelf that would work for 450 Bushmaster. My buddy has a 500 S&W and casts for that so I can use his molds if I decide to go with gas checked lead bullets for the 50 Beowulf. Plus I live about 10 minutes from Blue Collar Reloading so bullet availability is not an issue for any caliber. Brass is available for all three. Powder and primers will not be an issue for me. Mags are a little harder to come by for the two rounds that don't use the standard ones, but they are out there. As far as ballistics, they all shoot big heavy bullets and hit hard. Ammo availability is not an issue at all. If I shoot factory ammo at all it will be for a baseline function check and benchmark chrono data. The deciding factor may be which cartridge will be the easiest and most affordable to build a firearm for.

As far as brand of upper. The BCA is still looking like a good entry level choice for me unless something shows up in the classifieds that strikes my fancy. This is just a fun rabbit hole to fall into right now and I'm sure I'll learn a lot along the way. If I decide to build a more purposeful weapon in the future. The knowledge gained in this process will help inform my decision to invest in a better quality weapon.
 
acl864 said:
I appreciate all of the feedback.
I'm rethinking my caliber choice at this time. My decision to go with 458 SOCOM was basically because I liked the fact that I could use the 45-70 jacketed bullets I have on the shelf as well as the 390gr. FNHP bullets I cast myself, it was a thumper and saying 458 SOCOM sounded cool as f*&k. I'm going to take a step back and look at 450 Bushmaster and 50 Beowulf as well. I also cast and load for 45 ACP and 45 Long Colt so .452 bullets are on the shelf that would work for 450 Bushmaster. My buddy has a 500 S&W and casts for that so I can use his molds if I decide to go with gas checked lead bullets for the 50 Beowulf. Plus I live about 10 minutes from Blue Collar Reloading so bullet availability is not an issue for any caliber. Brass is available for all three. Powder and primers will not be an issue for me. Mags are a little harder to come by for the two rounds that don't use the standard ones, but they are out there. As far as ballistics, they all shoot big heavy bullets and hit hard. Ammo availability is not an issue at all. If I shoot factory ammo at all it will be for a baseline function check and benchmark chrono data. The deciding factor may be which cartridge will be the easiest and most affordable to build a firearm for.

As far as brand of upper. The BCA is still looking like a good entry level choice for me unless something shows up in the classifieds that strikes my fancy. This is just a fun rabbit hole to fall into right now and I'm sure I'll learn a lot along the way. If I decide to build a more purposeful weapon in the future. The knowledge gained in this process will help inform my decision to invest in a better quality weapon.
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Please keep us updated. Like I said earlier, BCA does fit some situations IF you have reasonable expectations and are willing to put in the work and chase down issues. Personally, I would go with the 450 bushmaster over the other two calibers simply because of the availability of factory ammo. I know you reload, however unforeseen issues may arise limiting your reloading and being able to get factory ammo is a big advantage.
 
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